


beyond silent

by contemplativepancakes



Category: Supernatural
Genre: COVID-19, F/M, POV Eileen Leahy, thoughtful! Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24014458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/contemplativepancakes/pseuds/contemplativepancakes
Summary: With everyone wearing masks, Eileen's world has gone silent. Well, more silent than usual, that is.Sam has a solution.
Relationships: Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 12
Kudos: 53





	beyond silent

Eileen’s world has gone cold and silent. Well, more silent than it was before. Before, when she went into a crowd, she could feel the energy thrumming through her, pick up on what was unheard through what was painted on the faces around her.

Now, most everyone is wearing a mask, and she’s never felt more alone. Her world has turned upside down in a matter of weeks, and it’s hampered her ability to do her job. Although most of the world around her has ground to a halt, she guesses the monsters haven’t gotten the memo.

She researches cases and does the legwork, but even when she finds someone willing to talk with her, conversations are an arduous process.

She has to pull out her notebook and ask the person to write down what they’re saying, and she hates the pitying looks she receives after their confusion fades away. She’s glad they can’t see the scowl that her own mask hides.

-

Her shovel has just scraped against the hard surface of the coffin when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye. She whips her shotgun up, aiming at the disturbance, when she realizes who it is. “Hey, Sam. Dean.” She breaks into a grin. “A little late, don’t you think? I already did all the hard work.”

Sam signs a greeting at her, but Dean responds to her jab. “Well, if we would have known you were already on it, we would have just left it in your capable hands. Maybe not lover boy, here, though. I’m sure he’d want to make sure everything turned out okay.”

She waggles her eyebrows at Sam and is pleased to see the blush she causes, even as Dean hisses at the elbow he receives in the ribs. She starts to climb out of the pit to grab her salt, gasoline, and lighter, but Sam’s mouth starts to move, so she refocuses her attention on him. “Oh, wait!” he says, “Hold on, we have masks in the car, let me grab them before you come up here.”

Eileen’s heart sinks, because even though Sam is getting better at signing, he’s still not quite up to conversational fluency, and she really wanted this moment to be her escape from everything going on around them —a return to normalcy. She watches Sam walk away, and a blush colors her own cheeks when she realizes that Dean is smirking at her stare.

Kindly, he doesn’t comment about it, just says, “Sammy’s been a total nerd about this whole thing; he won’t stop talking to me about epidemiology and how if he was engineering something to wipe out humankind, he’d give it a long incubation period like this, too. I think he’s just trying not to think about how that’s maybe exactly what Chuck has planned.” A frown mars Dean’s face before he clears his throat. “Anyway, it’s just like Sam to be so obsessed about this, what with his freaky serial killer fetish. Do you really know what you’re signing onto with that whole thing? It’s not too late to pick the more attractive brother.” Dean flashes a winning smile, just as Sam comes back and cuffs him upside the head. “Hey! What was that for?”

Sam rolls his eyes and flips him off. He hands a mask to Dean, then Sam unfolds his own and slips it behind his ears. Eileen stares at him in amazement.

“Pretty cool, right?” Sam asks, and Eileen can only nod. The mask has a clear plastic shield sewn into it, right in front of his mouth, so she can still read his lips. She’d never thought of anything like this, and she feels something warm blossoming in her chest that Sam did.

“Do you want one? We have an extra, they were kind of hard to find, and I wasn’t sure if you managed to get one…”

“I’d love one.” _Thank you_ , she signs, and Sam gives her a pleased smile and _you’re welcome_ back.

Dean waves a hand to get her attention, and Eileen yanks her stare from Sam. “Sam taught me some signs about my Baby!” he says excitedly, demonstrating for her. Eileen assumes that Dean isn’t trying to go on and on about what a jerk he is, and she shares a secret smile with Sam.

“It sure looks like it’s coming along, Dean. Maybe I can teach you the sign for car later,” Eileen says innocently as understanding dawns on Dean’s face and he splutters at Sam.

 _Thank you,_ Eileen says again, and Sam’s face morphs from his amusement at Dean to soft understanding at what Eileen’s been going through over the past few weeks.

_Whatever you need._

**Author's Note:**

> I was just thinking about this situation for deaf/ hoh people the other day, and when I saw an ASL interpreter with one of the masks described here, I knew I had to write this. Let me know what you thought, and if I accidentally wrote something wrong and weird about deaf experiences, let me know that, too. come find me on [tumblr here](https://contemplativepancakes.tumblr.com/), and departing from supernatural for a second, if you, too, have been personally victimized by rdr2 please talk to me about it before i vomit my love for arthur morgan onto every person I come into contact with


End file.
